A square centimeter look likes this. Each side of this square measures one centimeter, so it’s a square centimeter. The square centimeter is perfect for measuring the area of smaller objects like this rectangle. If we imagine lines inside the rectangle that show each square centimeter, the area would be very easy to calculate. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. There are 12 square within the rectangle. This means that the area of this rectangle is twelve centimeters squared. We write this measurement down like this, 12 cm2. The cm is an abbreviation for centimeter and the two represents squared.